Now-editorial Notes by Herman Bernstein

The Pilsudski government has outlawed the Naras, the anti-Semitic terrorists, as a menace to peace and order. Since their organization last ‘April, the Naras, the Nazified elements of the National Democratic and anti-Jewish party in Poland, resorted to violence and Jew-baiting in its worst forms. They attacked the Jews and plotted against the Pilsulski government.

By taking energetic measures against these Polish Nazis who had tried to transplant Hitlerism to Poland, the Pilsudski government has strengthened Poland immensely. Poland has many serious problems to solve in order to improve her economic position. Poland, therefore, needs above all internal peace and stability, and not the destructive and self-destructive methods of the Hitlerites.

HITLER’S “TRUTH”

Before making his full “explanation” to the Reichstag on Friday, Adolf Hitler gave a “message” to the United States in the form of an interview with Dr. Alfred J. Pearson, a former American Minister to Poland, and now Dean of the College of Liberal Arts of Drake University at Des Moines. The interview, published in the Paris New York Herald, was arranged through Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank.

In that message, Hitler declares that he slew the traitors to save Europe. When Dr. Pear-son asked Hitler what he could tell the American people about recent events in Germany, Hitler replied, “quick as a flash:”

“Tell them the truth. Tell them nothing but the truth. Germany has nothing to conceal. In due time we hope all the facts may be known. It is unfortunate for us all, for Germany as for other nations, that wild rumors about Germany, rumors without foundation in fact, are constantly current in America and other countries….

“During recent months we have had trouble in our ranks. Men in whom I had the utmost confidence turned out to be traitors. . . . It is tragic. It is abominable. These leaders, high in the service of the government, wearing the sacred insignia of authority, conspired and plotted to overthrow established government.

“I had no alternative. To be true to the oath of my office and to keep faith with my people, for whose welfare I am responsible, there was only one thing for me to do, and that was to remove the traitors—put them out of the way, where they could do no harm, and thus save the German people from the tragedy of a civil war. Civil war in Germany would disrupt the nation. It would cause chaos and confusion not only in Germany but throughout Europe. . . .”

What a wretched spectacle the Nazi Chancellor is making of himself. He says to the unofficial American diplomat:

“Tell them the truth. Tell them nothing but the truth.”

And he deplores the “wild rumors about Germany” circulated in America and other countries.

All the keen and wide-awake foreign correspondents in Germany have been trying hard to get the facts about the Hitler butchery of almost two weeks ago, but neither Hitler himself nor his aides told them the truth thus far. It was extremely difficult for the correspondents to obtain the facts for the reason that the Nazi government made every effort to conceal the truth.

Now Hitler exclaims:

“It is tragic. It is abominable.”

After having boasted about the unity and harmony he had established in Germany, the Nazi leader now whines that the men in whom he had the utmost confidence turned out to be traitors. And these leaders, he says, “high in the service of the government, wearing the sacred insignia of authority,” conspired and plotted to overthrow his established government. And so he had no alternative. “To prevent chaos and confusion not only in Germany but throughout Europe,” there was only one thing for him to do, and that was “to remove the traitors.”

But most of these traitors whom Hitler personally liquidated were for a long time his closest friends and comrades in crime. Hitler was the creature of these very traitors. He knew them and they knew him intimately. All of them have worked for the ruin and the degradation of the German people, and against the peace of Europe.

And it is the limit of hypocrisy on the part of Hitler to defend his personal butchery on the ground that he tried to save not only Germany but the whole of Europe.

The truth is that he tried to save only his own neck and his power. But he has defeated his purpose by resorting to such unprecedented savage methods.